DIGSSCORE Seminar: System support among voters, bureaucrats, and elected representatives

Lise Lund Bjånesøy, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Government at the University of Bergen, will present for us today. Her presentation is titled "System support among voters, bureaucrats, and elected representatives".

Abstract:
The distinction between diffuse and specific system support is central to our understanding of democratic culture. Simply stated, diffuse system support concerns beliefs in the democratic ideal, whereas specific system support is concerned with faith in the system and its core components as they are perceived to be. System support is for good reason some of the best studied and documented public opinion indicators in political science within and across countries. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how voters differ from actors at the core of democracy—bureaucrats and elected representatives—on these core dimensions.  Are bureaucrats and politicians more committed to the democratic ideal and less critical of the system because they know more and are more engaged?  Or are they more critical and discerning for this reason?  How do their answers about the performance of their own branch of government compare with that of others? And do they draw the same or different conclusions about the direction of change needed for democracy to function better? In this paper we present results from a fully randomized survey experiment addressing these questions.  They were fielded simultaneously (Spring 2023) to three samples in Norway: voters, politicians (mainly at local level), and bureaucrats (mainly at central level).  The experiment is designed to identify differences in both diffuse and specific system support among these groups. 

The event is in a hybrid format, you are welcome to join us for lunch from the Corner room at DIGSSCORE. Food is provided on a first-come first-served basis. Zoom link for digital attendance.